Blog

Chris Baer

Enterprise Strategy for Web 2.0

August 11th, 2011

Strategy

Companies want to be front and center on the web and mobile devices by serving audiences wherever they happen to knock at their door.  A detailed roadmap to achieve this vision is essential, but in the haste to sidle up to competitors’ new features, strategic vision is frequently replaced with a “git ‘er done” mentality.  While the urgency can feel real, so is the danger of precluding future opportunities through hasty implementations.

I recently completed a strategy engagement for an enterprise-level client. The company needed a multi-year plan that would organize their approach to web and mobile that was vetted with customers as well as internal audiences.  They were prepared to invest, but naturally, key stake holders wanted certainty that the desired outcomes could be achieved.  To complicate things, the enterprise needed to sell this vision to key departments that had already started their own divergent web, mobile app, and brand widget projects.

Of all the complexities they addressed in pushing out a solution, one thing was certain: whatever the choice, a great user experience was the only way it was going to succeed. Five years ago, that may have meant understanding what a customer wanted to purchase, making that item easy to find, and competitively pricing it.  Today, those basics must be combined with personalized content, aggregation of reviews, mobile accessibility, contextual interfaces, and merchandising methods that extend beyond the shopping cart.

From my experience in the field, it is evident that, regardless of industry, there are essential steps companies must take when unifying and contextualizing their web and mobile customer experience.

1.  Develop a roadmap around which tactical efforts can be planned

Designing a long-term strategic view will lead to better alignment of brands, establishment of content management standards, monetization of existing content, and reduction in cost and risk down the road.

2. Enlist the objectivity of a 3^rd party observer

Your organization is built on great talent with great ideas.  Orchestrating those ideas to generate the best opportunities is key and can seldom be done unilaterally from within the organization.  A 3^rd party brings objectivity, context, and informational resources that feed into the decision making process.

3. Encourage piloting programs

The truth is, no one can fully prognosticate the adoption of platforms or devices as competing trends arise.  An important part of strategizing is piloting low-cost concepts into key markets to test for traction and trending.  From the feedback, an organization must continually revisit and align the roadmap with newly understood information and conditions.

4. Establish and track organizational KPIs

Make it measureable.  Build in the key performance indicators (KPI) up front.  Beyond what was simply sold, the events that lead to the sale should be measured.  The successful tactics can become longer-term strategies in their own right.  It begins with setting the standards and measuring them. (Check out my colleague’s blog on tracking KPIs to influence your IT investment portfolio)

5. Make all of these possible in a repeatable, ongoing process

A colleague likes to quote the instructions on her shampoo bottle: “Wash, rinse, repeat.”  Organizations that incorporate a roadmap, safe experimentation and the establishment and measurement of KPI’s will be infinitely better positioned to succeed than those that take an ad-hoc approach.  The key is to continually revisit the roadmap, assess its trajectory, refine that trajectory, and repeat the process methodically to achieve excellence.

If you have any questions on developing a long-term strategy for your business – whether B2B or B2C – drop me a line below.